“From what has been told me,” replied Ida, “I don’t think that gentle methods, or wheedling, or coaxing, will accomplish anything. Unless she has no sort of regard for her private character, I think we will have to try to frighten her.” “Well,” said Nick, “we will have to leave that to you, and you must be governed by your judgment of her when you reach her.” After some further talk, Ida left Nick, still undetermined as to the methods she would use in getting to the singular young lady. As she was thinking on the street, her steps were led almost involuntarily to Sixty-eighth Street. Standing for a moment on the corner of that street and Fifth Avenue, she suddenly made up her mind, and, walking rapidly down the street, went to the Rainforth house and rang the bell. When the door was opened, Ida said to the servant: “Is Miss Julia Rainforth in?” “What name am I to present?” asked the servant. “My name will mean nothing to Miss Rainforth,” said Ida. “Tell her a lady would like to see her on a matter of much importance.” The servant ushered Ida into a small reception-room on one side of the hall, and disappeared. He was back again in a few moments with a message that Miss Rainforth desired to know the business of the person who had called. “Inform Miss Rainforth,” said Ida, “that the business I have come about is that which Miss Rainforth will not care to have known to her servants.” The servant went off, and was back again in a few moments, bringing with him some paper, a pencil and an envelope. “Miss Rainforth,” he said, “orders me to say that, if the business cannot be stated to a servant, it can be written on this paper.” Ida was about to return the paper with the word that a personal interview alone would do, when a thought struck her. She took the paper and pencil and hastily wrote on it: “Ellison. Mysterious disappearance. Elsie Sanborn. Mrs. Ladew.” As she wrote this last name, some one passed through the hall of whom Ida caught but a glimpse through the openings of the portières. Yet that glimpse suggested to her the man who came to see Ellison on the day of his wedding, as described by Patsy. Not that she believed that it was the man, but the fancied resemblance suggested an idea. She added hastily to what she had already written on the paper the following: “The mysterious stranger who called on Ellison on the day of his wedding.” She folded the paper, inclosing it in the envelope, sealed it, and gave it to the servant. In a very short time the servant was back again to say that Miss Rainforth would see the caller in her own apartment. CHAPTER XXII. IDA’S TRIUMPH. The servant led Ida up the stairs to the second floor and into a room in the front of the house, furnished most luxuriously as a sitting-room. A young woman, rather under-sized, but well proportioned, and with some claims to beauty, stood in the center of this room.